I got out the hot pipe to bend the rope rosette. This thing is heated with a soldering iron inside.
The dark stain is super glue that I had just applied. before using the super glue I had painted into the slot a coating of shellac to seal the wood. Otherwise, superglue will soak down the grain and be permanently visible.
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Now they are run through the drum sander equipped with fine grit paper, taken down to final .080 thickness and the sound hole is cut out. Note that the superglue marks have disappeared,
Now it is time to plot out the bracing locations. This is the classic bracing invented by Michael Kasha. Note that none of the braces go entirely to the edge, thus the entire top can vibrate.
The first installation will be the brace under the bridge. The bridge will be shaped identically. The "trumpet" shape is because the bass strings need stouter bracing than the trebles. Kasha was a physicist and determined this by many tests. Now the whittling of tone bars begins.
